UltraMon

Let me start with the bad news, UltraMon is not free. It has some features that can be found in other freeware programs, but I haven't found a combination of freeware that gives me the functionality that UltraMon gives. I have not purchased it, so I can't say if it is worth it or not, but what I can say is that it makes having a second monitor more useful.

Features

UltraMon has alot of features, but my favorite has to be having a second taskbar on your other monitors. What this means is that if you have two windows of Notepad open, one on each monitor, then you will have one button for notepad on each window's taskbar, and each one will correspond to the copy of notepad on that monitor. (hard to explain in word) Basically if the program is on that monitor you will have a taskbar button for it. This is very handy because you may not remember where in the taskbar the particular window is, but you know you left it on the right monitor, so you know that it will be on the right taskbar. If you want to quickly move the window from the left to the right, you can drag it of course, but I use another feature of UltraMon, the hotkeys. You can setup hotkeys to move windows to specific monitors, or maximize a window, or run a program, clone monitors, lock the mouse to a monitor, apply a specific display profile, and a bunch more. I find this nice so that I can quickly press CTRL + Spacebar to move a window to the next monitor.

UltraMon has a few other features I don't use as often, but are useful for some. Like the Maximize to desktiop, and move window buttons added to windows. These buttons are useful, but I just disabled them and used the hotkeys for monitor control instead. Another feature I don't use much is having a wallpaper stretch both monitors (not something Windows can do normally), or apply two different wallpapers, or two different screen savers.

Windows 7 has a new feature for multiple monitors for cloning. Press the Windows Key + P to bring up the menu that lets you quickly say to disconnect, duplicate, or extend between monitors. UltraMon adds to that by allowing you to share a single application, part of the desktop, or the area around the mouse, to a second monitor.

If you think that having a second taskbar, having projector control, and hotkey functionality is something you might want, then try out UltraMon. You can likely find some or all of these features in freeware applications, but none bring them all together in a nice polished application like UltraMon does. They do have a trial also so you can get your feet wet.